Machines of the Tortuga (56K Warning update: 21.08.2011)
Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:17 am
Hi!
Firstly sorry about bit quick photo's of which quality in sometimes left for desire. I used auto-setting as I didn't had time to manually set perfect foreach situation.
For those who think what the heck is Tortuga, its name of my 3 computer home Lan for playing games like Serious Sam's, Command & Conquer, Swat 4, Diablo's, Joint Operation: Typhoon Rising and Left 4 Dead and other good + some other limited co-op games. A tortoise is good name for a LAN ( That is what Tortuga is, a tortoise in spanish ) Obviously Left 4 Dead demands more than any other listed game..
Nexus ( Nexus as nod, joint or crossing point )
Is my primary computer.
Needs:
Silence: I keep this computer a lot on, due downloading things from net.
Storage: As n00b photographer storage for digital images is needed and Anime's like Bleach, One Piece and other several dozen ( hundred ) episode series eat up a lot disc space.
Power Effeciency: Because this is computer that is on most of the three, I focused on getting Idle power as low as possible. Next phase is getting Kill-a-watt.
CPU: AMD X2 4850e 2,5 Ghz 45W TDP. 65nm.
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-C12P. Very good top-down cooler.
Motherboard: Gigabyte MA78G-DS3H. Full ATX 780G motherboard.
VGA: Asus HD 4670 with Zaman VNF100-HP. All other games except Left 4 Dead run playable with HD 3200. Has good peerformance and power ratio. GPU core drops in 2D / low loads into 0,9v.
Memory: 3 GB Kingston 667 Mhz DDR2
Power: Nexus Value 430W. SPCR reviewed very quiet PSU. Overkill in wattage for my needs but its very quiet and doesn't need fan swap.
HDD's: Samsung T166 500GB: Hd501lj. Quiet and good HDD. Few years old. Noisiest part in my system even inside Scythe Quiet Drive. Diveded in 3 parts.. Lying on foam. Storage: F2 EcoGreen HD502HI. Very quiet and affordable. Suspended in Solo.
Case: Antec Solo. I cutt of fan grills. Due its summer and damn hot in my room, I added 2x NExus Real Silents @ 5-7v. I re-inforced the power and reset button with 2-part epoxy. I put some paxmate soft foam behindfront bezel and on sides. Every little thing helps ^^
Fans: 800 RPM slipstream in rear. 1 120mm Real Silent on Noctua UH-C12P. 2x 92mm Nexus fan on front.
Sound card: SoundBlaster Live-24bit.
Fan Control: Akasa Fan Control Jr.
Monitor: Acer P221W 22" TFT
Speakers: Creative Gigaworks T20 Series II.
Keyboard: Logitech Wave corded. Cyber Snipa Flexiglow v2 FPS buttons.
Mices: Logitech MX518 with Ultimate Breathe X-2 mice bad for gaming. Logitech Marbel Mice Trackball for regular use.
External HDD: Buffalo JustStore Eco 1TB USB 2.0
In Future: I will change Hd501lj into another HD502HI. Akasa FanControl JR will be changed into Scythe KazeQ. I get one more fan channel and I get down
all the way to 5v which is impossible with Akasa atm. Maybe change then Rear exhaust into 1200 rpm varian as its too loud @ 7v for sleeper rig.
Images:
-----------------------------------------------
Yes, I know desk is messy...
My Solo on its place. Yes, even a week things have started to pile up on it... Besides the dust that seems to drawn on that paint...
Insides could be cleaner. I should improve cablegami when I have more time.
Flimsy buttons have been curse of the Solo. I re-inforced mine with epoxy. Its hard to see but... It works well. It made buttons more stiff.
Sorry I forgot to turn picture correct way. But here's the Solo without front bezel and Dust filter.
-----------------------------------------------
Wolflair
My primary game rig.
CPU: Intel E8400 3,0 Ghz 65W TDP. 45nm
CPU cooler: Xigmatek HDT-S1283 RedScorpion with Scythe Kama-PMW
Motherboard: Asus P5Q-Pro P45 motherboard.
VGA: Club 3D HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 with Accelero S1 rev + S-flex 120mm 800 RPM Ziptied.
Memory: 2x2GB Muhskin DDR2 800 Mhz.
Power: Corsair HX 620W
HDD: Western Digital 650 GB Black.
Case: Modified and Dampened Antec Three Hundred: Enough space, enough cooling for budget. I love the Spartan utilitarian look.
Fans: 2x 120mm RealSilent @ 7v in front. 140mm Yate-Loon @ 9,5v top exhaust. 1200 RPM Slipstream Motherboard controlled around 950 RPM's in rear exhaust. Scythe Kama-PMW 120mm in Heat sink- Idles around 400 RPM's. I have Akasa PMW-splitter installed so I might get later 120mm PMW fan into rear exhaust and use it to ramp up with CPU fan. 3-pin fan control is pretty lousy in P5Q series, when they exist.
Soundcard: Soundblaster Audigy SE.
Speakers: Logitech Z3 2.1 speakers.
Keyboard: Ideazon/Steelseries Merc Stealth
Mice: Microsoft Habu.
Monitor: Acer P223Wi 22" TFT
Other: 4x 10cm CCF's modded into Amberish light tone. Something more different from blues, greens, reds and rainbow's of regular blings. Very soft tones and subtle lights. Way I like them to be instead bright blue eyes that kill your night vision in night, blind you and illuminate entire room...
Images:
-----------------------------------------------
Yes, I know its messybut when you have lot's of stuff and little shelf space...
Still messy
Modded top exhaust with YL-140mm fan.
I still could improve cablegami bit...
Upview. You can see one of the CCFL's if you look carefully.
Side panel with 2,5mm thick bitumen matt beneath and Akasa paxmate on the bitumen. Entire case got same lining and added significantly more mass.
Front panel without cover.
HDD suspension and you can see that most of the cables are attached in chassis and away from airflow.
-----------------------------------------------
Regor
Regor began as scrap part build and is currently in its 4th stage. I used a lot spare parts I had. It also needed to run Left 4 Dead. Its weak point ( in many ways ) is 4 years old 80 GB Seagate ide HDD. Main function: guest computer, Linux playground and 2ndary gaming rig.
CPU: Athlon II X2 245. 2,9 Ghz 65W TDP 45nm. At 62€'s this was in good mark. 250 would have been 20€'s more expensive. Not really worth of it.
Memory: 2x1 GB Mushkin 800 Mhz 2nd hand.
Cooler: Scythe Zipang. Well compelete overkill. I had Alpine 7 Planned but I got greedy and ipulsive when I got Zipang half price. It does cooling very well... And covers nearly half of my mAtx motherboard.
Motherboard: Asus M3A75-CM. mATX motherboard with 760G chipset and SB710 combo. 4 memory slots. Good layout. Good value.
VGA: HD Sapphire 4850 512MB GDDR3 HDMI. I really wanted HD 4770, but with price difference of 2 €'s and fact HD 4770 are sold out and upcomming patches come in... sometimes future... I guess. This was good choice. Ok, it runs hotter and draws more juice. But GDDR3 and 55nm technology are mature unlike GDDR5 technology. I paid from this card 99€'s instead Club 3D which I bought with 175€'s a year ago. Prices have come down... I am surprised that DualSlot heatsink is as quiet as it is. I expected a lot louder fan.
PSU: Antec EarthWatts 380W. Good PSU from reputable manufacturer. Good lines, good effeciency. Very good price ^^
Case: Antec P182: My old, modded case that has served me long and well for couple of years will continue serving me in this.
Case fans: Scythe slipstream 800 RPM fans in back and front. S-flex 1200 rpm @ 5v in top. Top fan is unnecessary but I got that S-flex in good use. Makes very slight vibration to top. No problem as computer is practically inauduable there, thanks to close by Freezer unit.
Keyboard: OCZ Elixir II: Quietest keyboard I have had so far. Budget and... pretty basic.
Mice: Razor Diamondback: Good mice. I got it in campaign and paid less than 60% of original price.
Monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 720N
Speakers: Logitech X210 2.1 Speakers.
Images:
-----------------------------------------------
Surprise, surprise. 3rd messy desk. I wonder if you guys can see... hmm a trend in my desks? i still find everything, unlike when they are tidy.
[/URL]
I wonder what parts qualify OCZ to advertise this as gaming keyboard? No macro's, no anti-ghost, no FPS keys / "butterfly" arrangement. Still under 14€'s and quietest keyboard I have had so far.
[/URL]
My old faithful P182 continues serving me still ^^
I forgot to rotate this one too. Sorry for the inconvinience.
Zipang is huge. I mean huge. Only when you put it in case you realize how big that heatsink is... And I got mATX board. It covers nearly half of the board nicely ^^
Cablegami is pretty easy in P18x series cases but I still could improve it bit.
-----------------------------------------------
Ethernet Swtich: Basic 8port Linksys switch. 10/100 MB
Cables: Cat5e belkin cables. 15m+15m+10m pieces.
In future: Cheap Gigabyte Switch and replace Cat5e cables with Cat6e cables as all my computer's integrated nic's are gigabyte nics.
I know some pictures may not load correctly or so. I'll be fixing what I can but Imageshack hasn't been that reliable in past days. During this session it crashed 3 times for me.
P.S. I'll be loading later, when it gets dark how the lights are in Wolflair. Currently its too bright.[/b]
Firstly sorry about bit quick photo's of which quality in sometimes left for desire. I used auto-setting as I didn't had time to manually set perfect foreach situation.
For those who think what the heck is Tortuga, its name of my 3 computer home Lan for playing games like Serious Sam's, Command & Conquer, Swat 4, Diablo's, Joint Operation: Typhoon Rising and Left 4 Dead and other good + some other limited co-op games. A tortoise is good name for a LAN ( That is what Tortuga is, a tortoise in spanish ) Obviously Left 4 Dead demands more than any other listed game..
Nexus ( Nexus as nod, joint or crossing point )
Is my primary computer.
Needs:
Silence: I keep this computer a lot on, due downloading things from net.
Storage: As n00b photographer storage for digital images is needed and Anime's like Bleach, One Piece and other several dozen ( hundred ) episode series eat up a lot disc space.
Power Effeciency: Because this is computer that is on most of the three, I focused on getting Idle power as low as possible. Next phase is getting Kill-a-watt.
CPU: AMD X2 4850e 2,5 Ghz 45W TDP. 65nm.
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-C12P. Very good top-down cooler.
Motherboard: Gigabyte MA78G-DS3H. Full ATX 780G motherboard.
VGA: Asus HD 4670 with Zaman VNF100-HP. All other games except Left 4 Dead run playable with HD 3200. Has good peerformance and power ratio. GPU core drops in 2D / low loads into 0,9v.
Memory: 3 GB Kingston 667 Mhz DDR2
Power: Nexus Value 430W. SPCR reviewed very quiet PSU. Overkill in wattage for my needs but its very quiet and doesn't need fan swap.
HDD's: Samsung T166 500GB: Hd501lj. Quiet and good HDD. Few years old. Noisiest part in my system even inside Scythe Quiet Drive. Diveded in 3 parts.. Lying on foam. Storage: F2 EcoGreen HD502HI. Very quiet and affordable. Suspended in Solo.
Case: Antec Solo. I cutt of fan grills. Due its summer and damn hot in my room, I added 2x NExus Real Silents @ 5-7v. I re-inforced the power and reset button with 2-part epoxy. I put some paxmate soft foam behindfront bezel and on sides. Every little thing helps ^^
Fans: 800 RPM slipstream in rear. 1 120mm Real Silent on Noctua UH-C12P. 2x 92mm Nexus fan on front.
Sound card: SoundBlaster Live-24bit.
Fan Control: Akasa Fan Control Jr.
Monitor: Acer P221W 22" TFT
Speakers: Creative Gigaworks T20 Series II.
Keyboard: Logitech Wave corded. Cyber Snipa Flexiglow v2 FPS buttons.
Mices: Logitech MX518 with Ultimate Breathe X-2 mice bad for gaming. Logitech Marbel Mice Trackball for regular use.
External HDD: Buffalo JustStore Eco 1TB USB 2.0
In Future: I will change Hd501lj into another HD502HI. Akasa FanControl JR will be changed into Scythe KazeQ. I get one more fan channel and I get down
all the way to 5v which is impossible with Akasa atm. Maybe change then Rear exhaust into 1200 rpm varian as its too loud @ 7v for sleeper rig.
Images:
-----------------------------------------------
Yes, I know desk is messy...
My Solo on its place. Yes, even a week things have started to pile up on it... Besides the dust that seems to drawn on that paint...
Insides could be cleaner. I should improve cablegami when I have more time.
Flimsy buttons have been curse of the Solo. I re-inforced mine with epoxy. Its hard to see but... It works well. It made buttons more stiff.
Sorry I forgot to turn picture correct way. But here's the Solo without front bezel and Dust filter.
-----------------------------------------------
Wolflair
My primary game rig.
CPU: Intel E8400 3,0 Ghz 65W TDP. 45nm
CPU cooler: Xigmatek HDT-S1283 RedScorpion with Scythe Kama-PMW
Motherboard: Asus P5Q-Pro P45 motherboard.
VGA: Club 3D HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 with Accelero S1 rev + S-flex 120mm 800 RPM Ziptied.
Memory: 2x2GB Muhskin DDR2 800 Mhz.
Power: Corsair HX 620W
HDD: Western Digital 650 GB Black.
Case: Modified and Dampened Antec Three Hundred: Enough space, enough cooling for budget. I love the Spartan utilitarian look.
Fans: 2x 120mm RealSilent @ 7v in front. 140mm Yate-Loon @ 9,5v top exhaust. 1200 RPM Slipstream Motherboard controlled around 950 RPM's in rear exhaust. Scythe Kama-PMW 120mm in Heat sink- Idles around 400 RPM's. I have Akasa PMW-splitter installed so I might get later 120mm PMW fan into rear exhaust and use it to ramp up with CPU fan. 3-pin fan control is pretty lousy in P5Q series, when they exist.
Soundcard: Soundblaster Audigy SE.
Speakers: Logitech Z3 2.1 speakers.
Keyboard: Ideazon/Steelseries Merc Stealth
Mice: Microsoft Habu.
Monitor: Acer P223Wi 22" TFT
Other: 4x 10cm CCF's modded into Amberish light tone. Something more different from blues, greens, reds and rainbow's of regular blings. Very soft tones and subtle lights. Way I like them to be instead bright blue eyes that kill your night vision in night, blind you and illuminate entire room...
Images:
-----------------------------------------------
Yes, I know its messybut when you have lot's of stuff and little shelf space...
Still messy
Modded top exhaust with YL-140mm fan.
I still could improve cablegami bit...
Upview. You can see one of the CCFL's if you look carefully.
Side panel with 2,5mm thick bitumen matt beneath and Akasa paxmate on the bitumen. Entire case got same lining and added significantly more mass.
Front panel without cover.
HDD suspension and you can see that most of the cables are attached in chassis and away from airflow.
-----------------------------------------------
Regor
Regor began as scrap part build and is currently in its 4th stage. I used a lot spare parts I had. It also needed to run Left 4 Dead. Its weak point ( in many ways ) is 4 years old 80 GB Seagate ide HDD. Main function: guest computer, Linux playground and 2ndary gaming rig.
CPU: Athlon II X2 245. 2,9 Ghz 65W TDP 45nm. At 62€'s this was in good mark. 250 would have been 20€'s more expensive. Not really worth of it.
Memory: 2x1 GB Mushkin 800 Mhz 2nd hand.
Cooler: Scythe Zipang. Well compelete overkill. I had Alpine 7 Planned but I got greedy and ipulsive when I got Zipang half price. It does cooling very well... And covers nearly half of my mAtx motherboard.
Motherboard: Asus M3A75-CM. mATX motherboard with 760G chipset and SB710 combo. 4 memory slots. Good layout. Good value.
VGA: HD Sapphire 4850 512MB GDDR3 HDMI. I really wanted HD 4770, but with price difference of 2 €'s and fact HD 4770 are sold out and upcomming patches come in... sometimes future... I guess. This was good choice. Ok, it runs hotter and draws more juice. But GDDR3 and 55nm technology are mature unlike GDDR5 technology. I paid from this card 99€'s instead Club 3D which I bought with 175€'s a year ago. Prices have come down... I am surprised that DualSlot heatsink is as quiet as it is. I expected a lot louder fan.
PSU: Antec EarthWatts 380W. Good PSU from reputable manufacturer. Good lines, good effeciency. Very good price ^^
Case: Antec P182: My old, modded case that has served me long and well for couple of years will continue serving me in this.
Case fans: Scythe slipstream 800 RPM fans in back and front. S-flex 1200 rpm @ 5v in top. Top fan is unnecessary but I got that S-flex in good use. Makes very slight vibration to top. No problem as computer is practically inauduable there, thanks to close by Freezer unit.
Keyboard: OCZ Elixir II: Quietest keyboard I have had so far. Budget and... pretty basic.
Mice: Razor Diamondback: Good mice. I got it in campaign and paid less than 60% of original price.
Monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 720N
Speakers: Logitech X210 2.1 Speakers.
Images:
-----------------------------------------------
Surprise, surprise. 3rd messy desk. I wonder if you guys can see... hmm a trend in my desks? i still find everything, unlike when they are tidy.
[/URL]
I wonder what parts qualify OCZ to advertise this as gaming keyboard? No macro's, no anti-ghost, no FPS keys / "butterfly" arrangement. Still under 14€'s and quietest keyboard I have had so far.
[/URL]
My old faithful P182 continues serving me still ^^
I forgot to rotate this one too. Sorry for the inconvinience.
Zipang is huge. I mean huge. Only when you put it in case you realize how big that heatsink is... And I got mATX board. It covers nearly half of the board nicely ^^
Cablegami is pretty easy in P18x series cases but I still could improve it bit.
-----------------------------------------------
Ethernet Swtich: Basic 8port Linksys switch. 10/100 MB
Cables: Cat5e belkin cables. 15m+15m+10m pieces.
In future: Cheap Gigabyte Switch and replace Cat5e cables with Cat6e cables as all my computer's integrated nic's are gigabyte nics.
I know some pictures may not load correctly or so. I'll be fixing what I can but Imageshack hasn't been that reliable in past days. During this session it crashed 3 times for me.
P.S. I'll be loading later, when it gets dark how the lights are in Wolflair. Currently its too bright.[/b]